Sunday, May 26, 2013

May 26: God, don’t you remember?



In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.” Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria.’”   (2 Kings 20:1-6 — New King James Version)

Do you see how powerful the prayers and tears of God's people are? Your prayers have power to change God's plans. Your tears touch His heart. Hezekiah was going to die because of a tumor, but he appealed to God and reminded Him of his faithfulness. He cried because he didn't want to die. The Lord heard him and saw his tears. God healed him, gave him fifteen more years of life, and also gave him victory over his enemies.

You can also move God's heart and hands. If you are being defeated by an enemy, if you are sick, if you are in deep trouble — do what Hezekiah did. Turn your face to the wall, call out to God, and cry before Him. He will hear and see, and will deliver you. But there is no way you can do this without genuine faith in God. If you don't have faith, if you haven’t been faithful to Him, how can you do what Hezekiah did? You may need to work on strengthening your faith before you can see miracles in your life.

Reading the passage above can give you faith, and so can reading the Gospels — the first four books of the New Testament. Reading about Jesus’ life and how He interacted with people will cause faith to come flooding into your soul.

The elephant in the room regarding this passage is the audacity of Hezekiah to disagree with God’s declaration, and God’s incredible willingness to change His mind when a mere human being asked Him to. Most people, upon hearing a prophesy from God about how they were going to die in three days, would simply say “Yes, Sir” and die. But somehow Hezekiah felt he could appeal to God, argue his case, and revolt against a situation that for him seemed unfair. I’m sure Hezekiah had the courage to speak to God in this way because he had gotten to know God over the years, he’d experienced God’s mercy and power in an extreme way when he was delivered from Sennacherib. All this gave him the boldness of a true child of God. His appeal, I’m certain, was not seen as an insult by God, but rather a compliment. — I wonder if you have this boldness. If you don’t, you will miss out on the best that God has for you.

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